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Crazy Ant damaging wires and cables!

Crazy ants are different from any other type of ant. In fact, they’re actually deadly than fire ants crazy ants have potent venom that can knock down fire ants instantly. They are also known as the hairy crazy ant, raspberry crazy ant, and the Caribbean crazy ant.

Originating from the Southeast regions of US, these extraordinary ants are one of the weirdest species in the ant world. Their existence is not only a nightmare to humans but they also pose mortal dangers to other ant species as well. They earn the term “Crazy” because they are invasive, have a strange and unique appetite and also are suicidal!

The crazy ants can have multiple queens within one colony. Some colonies have up to 100 queens in them. Their reproduction is much faster than the other ant species!

Though the crazy ant threat to electronics has not been lost on the tech media, the insects are probably more a threat to your air conditioner than they are to your phones. The ants are more likely to get into fixed equipment, house wiring, and even vehicles.”

Crazy Ants crave for something electronic other than the normal sweet stuff. They like to chew through electronic cables, components, and any electrical circuitry. The craziest part is that they love to kill themselves when they eat into the live electric wiring! And, as they get fried, they emit a chemical that summons their friends to the same spot (or their dead spot) to avenge their death! All in all, your computers, TVs and mobile phones are no longer safe once a swarm of these ants attacks them. One can find crazy ants in areas where moisture is prevalent. Any debris, landscape timbers, firewood, and leaf piles can attract them.

Let us have a look at some of the news article.

Crazy ants’ a threat in the southern U.S.May 19, 2013

Researchers at the University of Texas are warning that the invasive species from South America has the potential to change the ecological balance in the southeastern United States, largely because the ants can wipe out colonies of what’s been widely considered the insect villain of the region, the fire ant.

The crazy ants, officially called “Tawny crazy ants,” are omnivores that can take over an area by both killing what’s there and starving out what they don’t kill, said Ed LeBrun, a research associate with the Texas invasive species research program at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in the College of Natural Sciences.

“Perhaps the biggest deal is the displacement of the fire ant, which is the 300-pound gorilla in Texas ecosystems these days,” LeBrun said in a press release. “The whole system has changed around fire ants. Things that can’t tolerate fire ants are gone. Many that can have flourished. New things have come in. Now we are going to go through and whack the fire ants and put something in its place that has a very different biology. There are going to be a lot of changes that come from that.”

Beyond the troubles they cause for the environment, the crazy ants can be a big headache for people because their populations are so dense, LeBrun said.

The crazy ant’s nest in walls, crawl spaces, house plants or empty containers in the yard, researchers said.

“If people living in or visiting invaded areas are careful and check for the crazy ants when moving or going on longer trips, they could have a huge impact on the spread,” LeBrun said.

Invasive crazy ants disrupt pollination in pumpkinOCTOBER 07, 2017

There is yet another reason to be worried about invasive yellow crazy ants — these aggressive predators of native fauna also disrupt pollination in pumpkin plants causing crop loss finds a recent study published in the journal Biological Invasions. This is the first time that this has been recorded in any plant.

Pollination is vital for fruit formation. However, in the traditionally bee-pollinated pumpkin patches of northern Kerala’s Kasargod district, farmers now hand-pollinate their pumpkin patches, complaining of crop loss otherwise. Scientists at the Central University of Kerala decided to investigate why pumpkin pollinators here were failing.

Pumpkin plants produce separate male and female flowers. Watching pollinators visit 128 female and 112 flowers across 18 pumpkin patches, the team found that honey bees — the main pollinators of pumpkin here — visited female flowers more than they did male ones. “That’s because female flowers produce a better quantity and quality of nectar,” says scientist Sinu P. A., who led the study.

Since bees needed both pollen (a protein and nutrient-rich food for their brood) and nectar, they flew between male and female flowers, facilitating pollination. Crazy ants, however, feasted only on the nectar of female flowers across 15 of the 18 pumpkin patches they surveyed.

These results could have larger implications, not just for India’s pumpkin farmers — who cultivate pumpkin across 47,000 hectares and produce up to 10.31 metric tonnes annually — but other crop cultivators too.

Conventional insecticides have proven to be a failed solution to give effective results. These insecticides are toxic in nature. They kill target as well as nontarget species. They are also hazardous to human health. Moreover, species like crazy ants are not at all affected by the toxic effects of these insecticides.

It is an environmentally safe product that works by repelling the insects without causing any harm to the target or non-target species. Termirepel™ is available in form of a solid masterbatch which can be safely incorporated into the PVC insulation of wires and cables while manufacturing or coated on surfaces to keep crazy ants away from the application.

Termirepel™ is available in the form of liquid concentrate and lacquer which can be easily blended with paints and organic solvents and can be applied to already installed wires and cables, sockets, electric board etc.

Our newly developed product in the form of a spray can be applied to already installed wires and cables, it is compatible with all types of surface and can be sprayed by anyone